Christmas Bite

It’s the tenth day of Christmas! Stelios and Niketas, everyone’s favorite pair of werewolves, is back for a very were-y holiday season…and one more special excerpt! Luka’s pack has come to visit their Alpha’s twin for Christmas – bringing along Luka’s year-old pups, of course!

Enjoy, glorious beings!

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They finished breakfast a little after ten. Stelios had just sat down with his second cup of coffee and Niketas in his arms, when the buzzer went off and the Alpha was forced to get up again and let his brother and the rest of his pack in.

Before either of their parents, Luka’s pups came racing out of the elevator, the twins Markos and Marius first, a pair of gray blurs. They were followed by the black, trotting body of their omega brother, Nyctimus. He went straight for Niketas, climbed up the edge of the couch and into the older omega’s lap.

A soft serenade of yips came from his twin brothers as they escaped their mother’s belated attempt to hold them, sniffing at everything in their path with eager, twitching noses. Stelios watched as they circled the room, paused at the hearth, and finally settled at the Christmas tree, dazzled by the blinking lights and their reflections in the wrapping paper on the packages beneath.

Anna grinned her apology at Stelios for a moment, before she shucked her clothes, shifted to wolf shape and slipped across the room to chastise her offspring while Luka shook his head. “Trouble, as always. They’re impossible, unless they’re watching their brother—Merry Christmas, Stelios.”

Stelios grinned at his twin, brushed cheeks with him and embraced him with one arm. “Like us, then—”

“When we were pups.” Luka slung himself onto the couch, nudged Niketas with his shoulder and got a yawn in return. “Why so lazy, omega?”

“Ask your brother, Alpha.” But he grinned, nudged Luka back and let the pup in his lap worry one of his fingers with blunt milk teeth. “Looks like family life agrees with you. How’re things on the mountain?”

Stelios turned his attention away from their low conversation as the elevator came back up and spilled the rest of Luka’s pack into his entryway. Ares and Alexandre were indeed followed by Leon and Dmitri, but Leon greeted him while blushing and avoiding his gaze.

It had been more than a year since the day Stelios had confronted the blond on the mountain, but ever since then a single look had been enough to make Leon redden and look away. It might have been cute, except that Stelios didn’t think he was ever going to forgive Leon for taking Niketas that one time—even at Luka’s order.

The fact that Leon now seemed interested in him changed nothing. Stelios had no interest in the blond’s crush, and only nodded at him curtly while he slapped Alexandre on the back, shook Ares’ hand and closed the door behind Dmitri. Still, when he turned back to face the sofa, he relaxed. There was such an increase of warmth in the room.

Luka sat with an arm along the back of the couch, behind Niketas’ shoulders, and his hand resting on Anna’s back as she lay curled up beside him, tugging the twins back under control when they tried to wander. Stelios didn’t go to his chair, but let Alexandre take it. Instead he bent by the couch and picked Niketas up, pup and all.

“Ah—hey! Sir—”

“You’re in my spot. Don’t worry, I have another one for you.” He settled himself next to his brother, and Niketas in his lap, draping the omega’s legs across Luka’s knees. Niketas let out an apologetic whine, but Luka only shifted and sprawled a little more, stuck his arm back behind Stelios instead, and sighed as he stared into the fire.

Apparently pleased by the new arrangement of adult bodies on the sofa, one of the twins escaped Anna’s grip and climbed his way across his father to get his paws on Stelios’ side and nuzzle at him, then pulled himself up Niketas’ thigh to press his nose against his brother’s.

The Alpha allowed it, then scruffed the pup gently, shaking him a little. “Are you going to stay like this the whole visit? I was going to play a movie for you, but you won’t be able to see as wolves.”

Luka caught his gaze, grinning. “Christmas Carol? Which one?”

Stelios leaned forward, pressed his lips against Niketas’ throat, breathed in the scent of his hair, then let his eyes drift closed. “You pick. I’m not sure which one you want to show the pups. If they’ll be boys for a bit…”

Wiggling, a little more active now, it was Nyctimus who responded first, shifting in Niketas lap from black-furred pup to plump, black-haired toddler. “Gon’ watch? Plee?”

Niketas ruffled his hair. “Yeah, pup. C’mon, shift over if you wanna stay up here.” The little omega obeyed obligingly, and beside him, Marius shifted too, nestling between Stelios and his father, sitting half on each of them.

“C’mon, Markos, don’t you wanna see?” Clearer, more forceful than his brother’s, the words finally compelled his twin to obey, and Anna slipped away with a last nip of reprimand to shift and get dressed again herself.

Luka watched her go, then hefted Niketas’ legs out of the way and got up to go look at Stelios’ collection of videos. Niketas growled low in his throat as the riled, squirming pair of Alpha toddlers tried to climb him the moment their father was out of the way. Stelios watched them trying to orient themselves, while their brother submitted, wiggling out of their way, but the adult omega wasn’t having it.

Niketas brushed them aside, then scruffed them when they bared their teeth, pressing at him with tiny sparks of Alpha aura. He tossed them down to the end of the couch, then turned a little, tucked his face into the side of Stelios’ neck and closed his eyes. “Brats. But this is nice. Missed my pack…and you’re warm.”

The omega let out a long sigh as Stelios squeezed him with the arm around his back and nuzzled him. “That why you’re falling asleep on me?”

But Niketas lifted a lip, nipped at the side of his throat, then yawned again. “You know why.” He closed his eyes as a low swell of music rose from the TV, and the pups immediately turned their attention to it, going still as Luka came back to his spot.

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